Station accessibility in Brent and Harrow Constituency

Krupesh Hirani: I welcome the Mayor of London’s response to a previous written question submitted (Reference:2021/3168) confirming the completion of works to make Sudbury Hill station accessible by the end of 2021. What is the current target date for the completion of the works?

The Mayor: The current target for the completion of works at Sudbury Hill station is by the end of 2021. There has been no change to the anticipated delivery date since my previous response to Mayor’s Question 2021/3168.
I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to ensure you are contacted prior to the completion of works so you have advanced notice of the date that step free facilitieswill be available at this station.

Heathrow Express and Piccadilly Line Closures (1)

Tony Devenish: If the Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly Line are closed at the same time, is that a sign of failure on the part of London Underground and Network Rail?

The Mayor: London Underground and Network Rail work hard to minimise the number of times that railway lines serving the same locations are closed at the same time. Very occasionally such closures are unavoidable if there are no viable alternatives.
On 26 December 2021 London Underground will be part way through a seven-day closure of the Piccadilly line between Acton Town and Heathrow (24 to 30 December 2021). The principal work being undertaken on the Underground is the replacement of ten sets of points (the movable sections of track, which allow trains to move from one line to another) at Northfields, which will renew life expired assets and enable a redesign to accommodate more trains, as part of the Piccadilly Line Upgrade.
Network Rail, which does not usually run a full service on Boxing Day, needs to undertake essential upgrades to its signalling system around Paddington station.
Working with Heathrow and other stakeholders, London Underground will lead on the provision of alternative transport, as detailed in my response to Mayor’s Question 2021/3802.

Crime and Safety on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) (1)

Caroline Pidgeon: Please provide a breakdown of reported criminal activity on the DLR when compared with the wider Tube network, the London Overground and TfL Rail services over the last five years. Please break this down by month.

The Mayor: Recorded criminal activity data from the British Transport Police, which is held by Transport for London (TfL), has been provided in the accompanying spreadsheet for Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Underground, London Overground and TfL Rail services over the last five years. Not only does the DLR have one of the lowest volumes of crime, it also has the lowest rate of crime per million journeys of 6.2 per million passenger journeys.

The Mayor: 3595 data attachment.xlsx

384 bus

Anne Clarke: Has TfL assessed the impact of the changes to the 384 bus service and the impact on passengers in New Barnet?

The Mayor: The impact on passengers including an Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) was undertaken and fully considered before a decision was made to re-route and extend bus route 384 to Edgware on 29 August 2020. The EqIA is available on Transport for London’s (TfL’s) consultation website via the following link: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/route-384/
In order to keep the ongoing impacts under review, TfL has recently undertaken a post-implementation assessment of the impact on passengers which is also published on TfL’s website via the following link: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/route-384-post-implementation-review.pdf

Tube Staff Absenteeism

Tony Devenish: Please provide absenteeism numbers of Tube staff from March 2020 to date with a summary of reasons.

The Mayor: The table below provides a summary of the incidences of absence, by absence type, for London Underground employees between March 2020 and 1 September 2021.
The table provides the number of incidences of each absence type, the percentage of planned workdays that these absences accounted for, and the proportion of each absence type.
Covid-related absence is the most common absence type since March 2020; this includes those who tested positive for Covid-19, those required to shield or those required to self-isolate.
Reason
No. of Incidences
% of Planned Working Days
% of Absence Days
COVID
8,704
2.02%
29.50%
Musculo Skeletal
2,995
1.09%
15.88%
Gastrointestinal
2,377
0.35%
5.12%
Coughs and Colds
2,259
0.29%
4.22%
Mental Health
2,178
1.26%
18.44%
Accidents/Assaults
1,382
0.47%
6.84%
Neurological including Eye and Ear
1,340
0.27%
3.98%
Miscellaneous – Absences awaiting classification
1,122
0.16%
2.36%
Other
799
0.25%
3.64%
Respiratory
593
0.15%
2.23%
Heart Diseases Including Blood Pressure
344
0.20%
2.92%
Genitourinary/Renal
335
0.10%
1.52%
Infections
187
0.04%
0.60%
Pregnancy/Childbirth
119
0.05%
0.71%
Cancers/Carcinoma/Tumour/Neoplasms
96
0.12%
1.76%
Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders including Diabetes
53
0.02%
0.28%
Grand Total
24,883
6.84%
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Heathrow Express and Piccadilly Line Closures (2)

Tony Devenish: If the Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly Line are closed at the same time, how would you recommend people, who wish to avoid driving, travel to Heathrow Airport?

The Mayor: Heathrow Express, TfL Rail and London Underground Piccadilly line services between Heathrow and Acton Town will be closed on Boxing Day. Heathrow Express and TfL Rail services will resume on Monday 27 December and the Piccadilly line works will continue until 30 December.
On Boxing Day, customers travelling to Heathrow will be directed to replacement coach services operated by TfL. These services will run non-stop between Hammersmith and Heathrow. The coach service will be operated every few minutes with accessible vehicles.
The non-stop services will operate from Hammersmith lower bus station rather than Acton Town, as there are two bus stops available for exclusive use of the rail replacement services, providing additional space, making it easier to load luggage and providing a better experience for customers. TfL uses coaches for these services as they are more suitable for customers with luggage and for the motorway journey to the airport. In addition, TfL will have customer information staff through Hammersmith shopping centre and the lower bus station, and porters to load/unload luggage on the coaches. Great Western Railway/Heathrow Express and TfL Rail will direct their customers from Paddington to Hammersmith for these express coach services.
TfL will also operate a series of rail replacement bus services during the seven-day closure of the Piccadilly line to Heathrow (24-30 December), including the following when the closure is between Acton Town and Heathrow over Christmas: